The bodies of 32 Cuban soldiers and security personnel killed during the US military intervention in Venezuela have arrived in Cuba for formal military ceremonies and burials.
The Venezuelan government says more than 100 people were killed in the country during the US raid on its capital, Caracas, on 3 January.
The Cubans were working as protection officers for the Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro, when he was forcibly removed from Venezuelan soil and taken to New York to face drug trafficking charges.
The soldiers’ remains will be received with military honours and taken to the Ministry of the Armed Forces in the capital, Havana, where the public can pay their respects.
Events will then be held in municipalities across the island, and a protest is due to take place outside the US embassy on Friday before the bodies are interred.
Many of those killed were tasked with protecting Maduro when US Delta Force troops entered his compound.
It is believed to be the largest number of Cuban combatants killed by the US military since the Bay of Pigs invasion – a failed attempt to overthrow former leader Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba – in 1961.
Venezuela is a long-standing ally of Cuba.
Following the recent US action, US President Donald Trump has maintained pressure on the Cuban government, saying that the country is “ready to fall”.
He has said that the interim government of Delcy Rodríguez in Venezuela would no longer be sending oil to Cuba – something that would represent a huge blow to the communist-run nation.
Cuba is in the grips of an acute economic and energy crisis and can ill afford to lose its most important benefactor of the past 25 years.
The Cuban government has vowed to continue to resist against pressure and the economic embargo from Washington.
However, Cubans are worried about what a deepening conflict with the US will mean for the basics – such as keeping the lights on in the country and obtaining food amid widespread scarcity.
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